The Soldered Key
by ShisoLoveli
Summary: After a drunken night of card games Gajeel is forced into going on a job with Team Natsu. During said job, Lucy comes to the startling realization that Gajeel doesn't mean to be an ass, it's just his nature; like how Natsu is blatantly unable to read the atmosphere in social situations. A GaLu fic.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a REWRITE, if you have read the original story I condensed what I had into this first chapter and some of the second (even so, it is very heavily edited and improved). After that the story is taking a completely different direction than what I had previously written, so different I couldn't simply revise the story as it was. Enjoy!**

* * *

Lucy was in a particularly good mood. For the first time in forever she had enough money to cover her rent, bills, and other expenses, and it was only the beginning of the month. She pushed open the doors of the guild, yelling out an energetic "Good morning!", only to be met with the sight of Natsu and Gray snarling at one another. Ignoring the spectacle, she honed in on Erza sitting at a table, an entire strawberry shortcake in front of her. Happy sat on the table next to the cake, a mini spoon in his hand.

"Idiot! My punches are stronger, with or without magic!" Natsu growled as he shoved a finger against Gray's chest.

"Aye Lucy! Good morning!" Happy grinned at her, ignoring the brawling Dragon Slayer and Ice Mage, shoving an entire strawberry into his mouth.

"Hello Lucy." Erza smiled, ignoring the two fighting mages as they passed perilously close to the edge of the table. She held out a spoon to Lucy. "Have some cake with us. It's fresh."

Lucy grinned, throwing abandon to the wind. Cake for breakfast wasn't something she was usually into, but the baker's cakes from The Cake Shop were the best and usually sold out quickly. Today was such a good day, after all, so Lucy accepted the spoon with a smile and dug in. Erza poured her a cup of cherry juice from the pitcher on the table.

No sooner had a bite passed her lips before she felt a hard shove against the back of her head, and went flying, face first, into the cake. The untouched cup of juice tipped over as well, and Lucy could feel the cool liquid seep into the front of her top. Cherry juice… the stain would never come out; Lucy felt her anger mount as the situation sunk in.

"Ah, Lucy! I'm..." She heard Natsu start to stutter, then abruptly go silent.

The room was completely silent as Lucy pulled her face from the cake, dollops of whipped cream and cake crumbs clinging to her skin. She turned around ready to unleash her anger on Natsu and Gray only to be met with the sight of their faces drained of color, looking terrified.

Behind her she heard Erza ground out through grit teeth, "My cake…"

The air around Natsu and Gray filled with broadswords, the points meres inches from sinking into their flesh. The mages fell to their knees, whimpering nonsensical pleas and apologies to Erza.

Erza towered over them, speaking with maniacal menace in her voice "I waited in line for an hour for that cake. Punishment is the only option. There is no escape."

Elfman's voice burst in. "Yes! Accepting punishment is a man!"

Juvia appeared out of nowhere, clinging to a momentarily petrified Gray, "No! Juvia will not allow Gray-sama to be punished by any woman but Juvia!"

It would have been a comical sight for Lucy to see if a blob of whipped cream hadn't chosen that moment to fall from her face and down the front of her shirt. Irritation burst through her and she grabbed Fleuve d'étoiles, lashing the whip towards Natsu and Gray. Before the whip could land, a wave of water washed over her drenching the rest of her clothes, and everyone on her side of the room.

"Nooo! Juvia will not allow her love rival to whip Gray-sama! Juvia must be the only one to whip him.", the water mage squealed with her eyes closed, unleashing a torrent of water whips around her. The jet streams whipped around the room, wrecking everything in their path.

Pandemonium ensured.

"My book!", Levy squeaked, staring at the water soaked pages of the ancient book before her. Jet and Droy, seeing their dream girl distressed, turned to retaliate, but in their haste knocked over Cana's barrels of wine, which fell to the floor and burst open. Cana, seeing the destruction of her wine barrels, rose in anger, and sent blazing cards straight at the pair of men. Some cards hit their mark, but some flew past, blowing up against Elfman's chest, which caused him to roar, "A man doesn't back down from a fight!". Elfman picked up his table and threw it wildly. The table smashed against Laxus, who had been leaning casually against the bar. Immediately lightening crackled around his body, and the Raijinshuu, seeing their leader get hit, surged into the battle alongside him, accidentally knocking over Bisca and Alzack, who both drew their guns. By the time Lucy was able to make it to the door, she was no longer just covered in cake, cherry juice, and water; building debris, splinters of wood, an assortment of food particles, and some odd unidentifiable sticky substance covered her clothes and skin. She closed the doors behind her with a sigh, effectively drowning out the noise of the carnage still going on.

Well, at least she had enough money to treat herself to a new outfit.

* * *

Lucy was quite pleased with her new outfit. The dress was made of cream colored, sheer chiffon layered over a sheath of pale pink satin. Tiny clear jewels decorated the material sporadically, twinkling like stars when they caught the light. Intricate golden flowers were crocheted along the collar of the garment, raising up and forming the straps of the top, crossing in a beautiful X shape across her back. To complete the outfit, a pair of gladiator sandals wove their way up her calves, tiny iron star studs dotted along the straps of leather. To further spur her newly good mood, the shop owner had clasped a small barrette of three interlocking crystal stars onto the side of Lucy's hair, saying it was her gift to so beautiful a customer.

She made her way back to the guild, pausing at the closed doors to listen to the level of ruckus inside. She still felt weary over the morning's events but she really wanted to show off her outfit. The noise level didn't sound much louder than the usual chaos, so Lucy decided it was safe and went in.

The first people she was saw were Wendy, Charla, Happy, and Pantherlily playing some sort of card game. From the looks of it Pantherlily was dominating the game. Wendy looked up as Lucy passed and gasped, "Lucy you look so pretty!". Lucy beamed at Wendy, her honest, childlike reaction so adorable that she grabbed the tiny Dragon slayer and hugged her.

"Yes Lucy, you look very lovely tonight." Erza's voice spoke from behind her, and as Lucy turned around, Erza reach out, grabbing both her and Wendy, effectively crushing the two girls against her armor. Apparently she had been unable to resist the visual temptation of female affection.

"Aye sir!" Happy agreed.

"Yes, you do look quite nice." Charla put in.

"Mhm." Pantherlily agreed absentmindedly, eyes on his cards.

Lucy gently broke away (actually pried herself from Erza's grip with great effort) from the group hug, her face a light shade of pink, pleased with the praise she was getting. The cherry on top was when Gray and Natsu, who had approached behind Erza put in their comments.

"Lucy you look amazing! Like a model" Gray said enthusiastically.

Natsu nodded his agreement vigorously. "Lucy, you look even better than a model! Doesn't she everyone?", Natsu yelled so the whole guild could hear. From all around the guild shouts of agreement could be heard.

Lucy felt like her grin would split her face. Even though she knew they were being extra nice with the over-the-top compliments since they felt guilty about shoving her face first into a cake, it was nice to be complimented about her appearance when she put in the work.

"I win!" Lily suddenly exclaimed, throwing down his cards. "Let's play again."

"No. It's like 33 to 0, and everyone has zero except you!" Happy protested.

"Don't worry Happy!" Natsu exclaimed, dropping into an empty seat, "I'll help you crush him!".

"Ah, a team battle! I accept the challenge!" Pantherlily declared, an arrogant smirk on his tiny face. "Gajeel! Come help me beat Salamander!"

"Eh? Beat Salamander? No problem." Gajeel declared from his seat at the bar, "Where do we battle?".

"It's a card game." Lily responded.

"Tch, a card game? No thanks." Gajeel spat dismissively, turning back to his beer, "That shit is for wimps and small children."

"Ha!" Natsu burst out, "He doesn't even have the guts to play. He knows he'll lose to me, just like when we fight."

With a loud growl, Gajeel rose from his stool, and stomped over to the table, shoving himself into an empty chair. "Deal the damn cards.", he snarled, downing the rest of his beer than slamming the empty mug onto the table.

"A fairy tail mage never steps down from a challenge." Erza declared, sitting down.

"A group match huh? Sounds interesting." Gray agreed, placing himself beside Erza.

Gajeel was surprisingly bad at cards. As in, flat out horribly, unskilled. Under normal circumstances Lucy would have teased her opponent mercilessly, but since this was Gajeel, and Lucy didn't want a fistful of iron through her throat, (she had seen him hurl metal at their comrades for much smaller annoyances) she choose not to comment on his lack of skill. Besides, she wasn't entirely sure it wasn't because 95% of his concentration seemed to be on hurling insults at Natsu, or the fact that he had already chugged back eight mugs of beer in the twenty minutes they'd been playing so far.

Gajeel's only saving grace was being paired on a team with Pantherlily, but the Exceed could only cover for his teammate so much. The more games they played the more Lucy started to get the feeling Gajeel didn't even know how to play the game, he had just decided to play because he refused to back down from a challenge, and of course he would be loath to admit he didn't have a clue what was going on.

Mirajane stopped by to refill Gajeel's beer.

"Oh my, what fun you all look like you're having.", Mirajane commented, her eyes crinkled into a smile.

"Yeah, it's great!" Natsu agreed happily, " Happy and I are in the lead.".

"Idiot you haven't even won a game yet!" Gajeel argued.

"You're one to talk, you're the worst player I've ever seen." Natsu shot back. The two men instantly lodged themselves into a face to face snarl fest.

"Well, why don't you make it more interesting." Mirajane suggested cheerfully, producing a large bottle of a dark amber liquid, seemingly out of thin air. A stack of shot glasses appeared just as magically, and she placed the lot into the center of the table. "When anyone loses they take a shot."

"Sounds fun!" Natsu agreed, pumping his fist into the air.

"It will definitely up the ante." Gray commented, Erza nodding in silent agreement beside him. Lucy sweat dropped; of course they would agree after easily winning the last five rounds.

"Actually, I was thinking about heading home." Lucy interjected, standing up.

"But Lucccy! We've barely started." Happy protested, trying to look sad. "Who will walk me and Natsu home if we get drunk."

"Hey we're not gonna lose Happy!" Natsu declared, to which Happy bounced back from dejection with a cheerful, "Aye, sir!"

"Yes," Erza stated a hand shooting out to Lucy's shoulder and forcing her back down, "and if you leave who will take the shots for Wendy. "

"But-." Lucy looked to Wendy who managed to look adorably forlorn at the thought of losing her human teammate. The protest died on her lips, "Ok, just a few more games." Which left Mira positively beaming as she produced another bottle of liqueur and placed it beside the first before heading back to the bar.

_Just how much did she think they were going to drink?!_

"I say we play a new game."Pantherlily suggested, his countenance utterly casual. "How about poker?"

After everyone agreed, Lily acting as self-appointed dealer, dealt out the first hand.

* * *

By her fifth consecutive shot Lucy's belly was full of the fiery burn of too much alcohol.

She had a mounting suspicion that Lily was slipping Gajeel cards on the sly; there was no possible way he had lost so spectacularly at Crazy Eights then completely dominated at poker, which was a card game ten times more difficult. At first she had wanted to voice her suspicions despite the emanate threat of being pounded to the floor with an iron hammer, but the alcohol had made her thoughts fuzzy and ultimately unconcerned. It didn't really matter anyway, especially since she was getting to see a drunk Natsu. Usually, his magic just burned through alcohol so he couldn't even work up a buzz but he and Gajeel had agreed to moderate their Dragon Slayer magic to even up the playing field.

Now Natsu's cheeks were starting to take on a tinge of color as pink as his hair, his grin even larger than usual. Erza looked normal, the only giveaway of her inebriation the occasional unprovoked head nod and smirk. Lucy decided she must be having some sort of internal monologue playing out in her head. Gray's indication of his current state was that he was stripped to down to his boxers, which actually wasn't saying much since that wasn't out of the ordinary. In fact, Lucy was just grateful that the boxers were still in place.

Lily dealt another round and Lucy grinned as she saw luck was finally on her side. She had a pair of queens and a pair of tens, a really good hand. She was definitely going to win this time. Triumphantly she slapped her cards onto the table with a loud, "Hah!", only to have her victory cut short at the sight of Gajeel fanning out a 3 of a kind. To add insult to injury they were all 2's. The only indication Gajeel made about his victory was a slight arrogant upward quirk of his mouth in her direction. That little gesture grated against her nerves.

_There was no possible way he is that damn lucky!_ Her alcohol befuddled mind shouted._ I ought to Lucy kick him into admitting he's cheating! That was too good a hand I had!_

Apparently Natsu felt the same way, because he shoved an accusing finger at Gajeel, screaming, "You're cheating!".

* * *

Despite the fact he hadn't taken a shot yet Gajeel had a pretty good buzz going. He had been downing beers since the beginning of the evening and was currently on his eighteenth refill. He was starting to get bored with poker but the boredom was worth working through just to see Natsu get more aggravated with every hand he lost. Despite Salamander's ever-present stupid grin, he could tell the Fire Dragon Slayer was on the brink of an explosion, and if he played his cards right (pun intended) he could have a real brawl going in just a few more rounds. Gajeel had been pretty disappointed to hear he missed a good fight in the guild that morning.

"Hah!" Lucy shouted as she put down a pair of queens and tens. Gajeel smirked, it was a good hand, but not good enough. Gajeel casually laid out his three of a kind. None of these unskilled losers were going to break his winning streak. He had been the best at poker during his Phantom Lord days.

His smirk grew as he watched Lucy's mouth fall open in disbelief, then her cheeks glow pinker as he could see the anger growing on her face. Just as she looked like she was about to say something, Natsu pointed at him, yelling, "You're cheating!" Unfortunately, Natsu was also a bit buzzed, so the arm he threw out accidentally knocked Gajeel's full mug out of his hand, causing it to spill all over his clothes. That was as much as Gajeel could take, fuck being patient with cards.

"Look what you did!" He roared, launching himself full throttle at Natsu, his blood temperature instantly rising in anticipation of a good fight. The two men began trading blow for blow, both sporting almost identical feral grins on their faces as the fight thickened. After a few moments Erza and Gray rushed over to try to stop the fight, seeing the Dragon's Slayers' attacks grow in magnitude. This backfired however, as Gajeel accidentally cracked Erza against the head with a swing of his iron bar, and Natsu landed a fiery kick against Gray's stomach. Erza and Gray, both fueled by the alcohol running through their own veins joined in on the battle wholeheartedly.

* * *

Lucy sighed; but it was a sort of weary, accepting sigh. From the moment they started playing she knew it had only a matter of time before an all-out war started given the relationship of the players.

"Ah," Wendy's sweet voice brought her to attention, "Should we stop them? It, um, seems the alcohol has made them be even more destructive than usual."

Wendy had a point. Lucy looked on wearily as a gigantic hole was blown through the roof, then subsequently, a similarly sized gaping cavity appeared on the wall. They definitely seemed to be fighting more fiercely than usual. It was probably their lack of inhibitions due to the alcohol… even the other members of Fairy Tail that usually surged into guild brawls seemed to be hanging back. She thought about making a getaway; one ruined outfit was enough in a day, but at that moment, each of the four launched an attack that combusted into a large outburst of magical power. The energy surged spectacularly throughout the guild, and when the dust cleared, the entire roof was missing and half of the wall over the bar had collapsed, destroying said bar beneath it. Every table, chair, and person was haphazardly thrown across the room, the inanimate objects smashed to pieces.

Lucy cringed; this was a lot more than the usual carnage after a guild fight.

Therefore, she wasn't surprised when Makarov appeared, growing in size, his voice magically enhanced to boom across not just the guild, but probably the entire town of Magnolia, and maybe even a few more miles beyond that.

Makarov's face was red with anger; his ranting so deafening Lucy could only catch the occasional words like "brats", "punishment", "fools", and "money".

"Oy, Gramps! It's not so bad!" Natsu put in, a cheery grin on his face, "It-".

Makarovs hand shot out, effectively flattening Natsu against the ground. His other hand swept out, scooping up Erza, Gajeel, and Gray in one sweep and unceremoniously dropped them atop Natsu's prone form.

Lucky instinctively moved back as Makarov's body swiveled toward her, his arm reaching out in her and Wendy's direction, but it was with a much gentler touch that he lifted up the two girls and set them on their feet next to the pile made up of their friends.

"You group of brats!" He roared, "You've destroyed the guild beyond magical repair. Not to mention most of the building materials we had were completely used up this morning in your first fight. If I don't teach you, you will never learn. You all will hold yourselves responsible for the monetary amount it takes to buy supplies and manpower to rebuild this guild."

Responsible for the monetary amount… those words played themselves on echo throughout her head. Lucy's face went blank as she imagined all her rent, grocery, and bill money flying out the window for the next several months. What made matters worse was that she hadn't even been in either fight! Well, she had given one snap of her whip that morning, but it hadn't connected with its target so technically...

"Hey, I wasn't even here this morning!" Gajeel protested.

"SILENCE!" Makaroc shouted. "You will all do your duty as Fairy Tail mages. More so, you will have the money by the end of next week. Ten million jewels."

Everyone's mouths fell open in shock. Ten million was roughly the equivalent of five S Class missions. There was no possible way they could achieve that, considering Erza was the sole S Class Mage.

"Coincidentally," Makarov boomed on, "there is a special request I received this morning that fits the situation. It just so happens it requires six mages, therefore, you all will be going on this job to pay for the damages." He shrank back to his size and took out a folded piece of paper from his back pocket. Without a word he handed the paper to Erza, then turned on his heel and disappeared into his office.

Behind his closed door, Makarov cackled to himself.

* * *

**Like it? If you've read the original, much less long winded and better word choice right? I was in the worst writing slump because I came to dislike what I had written, so here's to hoping I can start cranking out the chapters since I like this version SO much better!**


	2. Chapter 2

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Lucy ran down the street, trying not to curse out loud at being late.

She glanced down at her watch, five minutes until 10. Struck with a good idea, she grasped her keys, and still running, shouted, "Gate of the Golden Bull! I open thee! Taurus!" The overly muscled bull appeared, running alongside her. "Taurus I need you to carry me as fast as you can to the train station!".

"No problem! Lucy, nice body!" Taurus picked her up and perched her on a shoulder, running at a much faster pace than she had been able to.

As Taurus raced onto the station platform with a minute to spare, Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. Only to suck it back in again and watch in horror as the train facing outbound from Magnolia slowly began its departure.

"Taurus I need to get onto that train!" Lucy screeched, clutching his head in panic.

"Alright Lucy! Nice Body!" Taurus ran down the platform, catching up to the train as it was gaining speed.

Lucy saw a person leaning against the back railing on the outside platform of the last train car. A very familiar looking person.

"Gajeel!" She screamed, fueled by the adrenaline of the situation.

The man on the platform turned at the sound of her voice. If he was surprised at the sight of Lucy riding on the shoulder of an oversized bull as it raged down the train platform towards him, he didn't show it.

Lucy reached a desperate hand out to him, but all the man did was stare, arms crossed against his chest. Asshole. Lucy grit her teeth in irritation. Well, desperate times and all.

"Taurus throw me!"

Taurus launched her, with more power than she expected, straight at Gajeel. In midair she saw Gajeel's eyes widen fractionally in surprise, his arms instinctively uncrossing to catch her as she flew towards him. Unfortunately, the idiotic Taurus also threw her suitcase at the same time. Since it was much lighter it flew faster, slamming into Gajeel's side, surprising him enough to knock him off balance. Therefore, when Lucy reached him a few seconds later, instead of easily catching her, he crashed against the wall behind him, body sliding down until he sat on the ground, Lucy on top of him.

Lucy's hands were splayed against the wall in front of her, as she took a moment to regain her balance. She was kneeling in front of Gajeel's slumped form, in the space between his legs, his hands grasping at her waist where he had caught her. The bump and sway of the train was too difficult to find her balance against, and her hands fell to grip his shoulders as she tried not to completely collapse on top of him.

Lucy cringed, afraid to look down. Shit. He was probably fuming mad. She didn't blame him. He was already such a prickly person to deal with, it had been obvious last night from his attitude he really wasn't looking forward to working with their team. She'd seen him take beatings a thousand times worse, but she had caught him by complete surprise so maybe he hadn't been able to steel his body with magic in preparation. Maybe she had caused him some serious damage; he didn't seem to be moving...

Maybe he had broken something.

Or maybe he had been knocked out.

Lucy looked down.

Or maybe he was staring up at her as the entire bottom half of his face lay engulfed in the valley of her chest.

Lucy blinked. Gajeel continued his unwavering stare.

Lucy rapidly leaned away from him, her face hot in embarrassment. She was probably turning bright red, how humiliating. His hands fell from her sides. As his mouth came into view she expected his teeth to be bared in a snarl, but instead, there was a slight smirk on his face.

What the-

Before she could stop herself, her palm slammed against his forehead, forcing his head away from her.

"YOU PERVERT!"

"What the fuck?" he snarled up at her as his head cracked against the wall behind him. "It's not like I asked you to shove your tits in my face!"

Lucy's face turned even redder at the crude words. Her hand rose for another assault but before it could begin its decent Gajeel's own hand clamped down hard on her wrist; his other hand moved to grip her hip and push her away from him until she fell backwards onto her backside in the space between his feet.

Grumbling Gajeel stood without effort and turned, shoving open the car door. He stepped inside, slamming it shut behind him.

Lucy took a few moments to reign in her emotions. Despite her actions, she wasn't as angry as much as she was embarrassed. Sure, she had been in some equally compromising situations with Natsu and Grey, but, well, they were _Natsu_ and _Gray_. This was, _Gajeel_. She couldn't even begin to process it all. He was like a wolverine that grew razor sharp needles instead of fur. The more she thought about it, the more horrified she became until she had no choice but to grab her suitcase and slink into the car after him, head turned downward in embarrassment.

Erza sat in a booth with Natsu lying across her lap, face purple with motion sickness. Gray and Wendy sat across from the pair, Wendy leaning against the window asleep.

Erza turned to look at her. "Good morning Lucy. I have your ticket here. I was confident you would make it."

Lucy felt herself relax upon seeing her teammates. Just being near her friends made her feel better. Her mortification at what had happened just a few minutes prior disappeared, even as she walked past their full booth to the one Gajeel sat at right behind them.

He didn't even look at her, just stared out the window resolutely, arms crossed. Fine, whatever, she wasn't about to grovel for his forgiveness. Pantherlily sat in the seat next to him, and gave Lucy a formal, "Good morning Lucy." She smiled at him in return and sat onto the seat across from them, shoving her suitcase beneath her.

Ugh. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the hangover she had been keeping at bay hit her with full force. She was never going to drink again. She knew Wendy could easily solve it, but she didn't want to wake the small girl from her nap. She screwed her eyes shut and she pressed her hands onto her temples, gentle massaging the area. The pressure didn't let up, so she let her hands fall, but kept her eyes closed. Maybe she could take a nap as well. She stretched out horizontally along the seat, using a bent arm as a pillow. After a few moments it was quickly apparent that it was not going to happen. Each jostle of the train over a bump in the tracks intensified her headache, making her feel almost dizzy. She cracked open one eye, thinking that training her vision on a focal point would help, but the only thing in her line of sight was Gajeel.

His head was still turned to the side, gaze focused on what lay out the window. He sat with his back straight, arms knotted in front of him. Lily lay in a position similar to her own, except his head was propped up against the side of Gajeel's thigh. Lucy almost giggled to herself. Gajeel was so formidable and rigid and large, yet the little Exceed was snuggled up against him as though he were a fluffy, overstuffed pillow.

Lucy let her eyes idly rove over the man in front of her. Jeez, he had a lot of piercings. Lucy began to count each one she could see, her gaze slowly moving from metal stud to metal stud. This was almost as methodically relaxing as counting sheep, she mused. She could feel her headache seem to fade into the background as her lids lowered slightly. When she finished counting the ones on his face she moved down to the ones trailing along his arms.

Hmm, she wondered how that worked. She wasn't knowledgeable about piercings nor experienced with them. He was the first person she had ever seen who had sported metal on their arms. Her thoughts drifted across her mind like sluggish otters floating around a pond. The pieces of metal on his arm didn't even look like piercings, more like bolts that had been screwed in place. Knowing him, maybe they were just that. She giggled internally to herself, if she unscrewed them, would he fall apart? He was as stiff as a board after all. She let her eyes travel back to his face, only to be met with an intense red stare. If she wasn't so sleepy, she might almost have found it intimidating. Instead, the pull of slumber licking along the edges of her mind just made her widen her grin, giving him a full-blown dreary smile.

Gajeel lifted one metal studded brow, as though to say _Really? You're just going to smile at me after I just caught you staring? I've reduced men five times your size to their knees for much less. _Or at least that's what Lucy imagined he was insinuating; Gajeel was not a very talkative person so she would fill in the blanks herself. The irritation around him was almost palpable. He was so damn _inflexible_, both in character and physicality. She wondered if he was planning to stay like that the whole trip. He would probably pull something just from sitting like that, he had his muscles clenched so tightly each bugle and bump along his arms stood out. Or maybe, she mused, he was just that muscular and toned. After all he probably spent his free time jumping off cliffs and wrestling polar bears and Vulcans in blizzards with both hands tied behind his back. She mentally laughed at her own joke, her eyes drifting down to look over the tiny form of Lily, forgetting that Gajeel was staring at her.

The Exceed's head was still propped up against Gajeel's thigh. A faint purring/snoring combination was emitting from his mouth. It was so like Happy that Lucy gave a small giggle, straining to hear it. It was a soothingly familiar sound, the tiny grrrs and mewls, intermixed with breathy sighs and whistles.

Her last thought before she full drifted off to sleep was that snuggling up to Gajeel like that must feel akin to cuddling up against a large boulder.

* * *

Man she was fucking _weird._

He watched as she first smiled to herself several times, a few moments later even laughing out loud, before completely knocking out. Her behavior was almost as idiotic as Natsu. But, he supposed, they spent so much time together and Natsu was so moronic, it probably wasn't surprising if his behavior rubbed off on anyone who spent that much time with him.

Gajeel bared his teeth in irritation. He didn't want to spend his time thinking about the other man. Especially,since he was the reason he had been outside of the train car when they departed. Wendy had cast a Troia on him (without him asking), but apparently she had done it too many times to Natsu, so it wasn't working on him. Something Gajeel hadn't given two fucks about, until, asininely, Natsu had gotten sick even before the train had begun to move. The smell had completely invaded Gajeel's incredibly sensitive nose to the point it almost had his own stomach roiling. So he had left to get some fresh air, but only a few moments after he got outside the whole situation with Lucy went down. It had been annoying as fuck (apart from practically getting a mouthful of her tits), so he had come back in here without thinking. But now the smell was starting to get to him again, he could practically smell the sickness oozing out of Natsu's every pore.

Gajeel steeled himself, taking deep breaths through his mouth, so he wouldn't start to get motion sick himself. It seemed that it was worse when he was around other Dragon Slayers, sans Wendy. He wanted to go back outside, but Lily was leaning against him, fast asleep, and he didn't want to wake him. Trying to keep his mind off the putrid scent coming off of Natsu, he looked around.

There wasn't actually much to look at, besides the sleeping girl in front of him. Which, actually wasn't too bad, now that he examined her.

She was wearing another one of her incredibly low cut tops, the tops of her breasts even more visible than before, since she was laying sideways. As he examined them up close he saw just how large they were. They always looked big, since she was always wearing ludicrously tiny tops, but he had never gotten to stare at them like he was right now, up close and all. His fingers twitched with the urge to reach out and grab one in each hand. An urge created from as much curiosity as arousal -he wanted to see if they were too large for even his hands to fit around.

Gajeel smirked in satisfaction as he remembered how goddamn soft they felt against this face. He'd been slightly pissed off as he landed on his ass after catching her, but then she had landed with her chest_ right there,_ and his hands had gripped her waist, telling his hormones just how fucking small it was in comparison to the expanse of her chest, and her smell had filled his nose as it pressed up against the soft cushions…

"You know if you keep smiling like that you'll scare more people than when you're scowling. You look like a lecherous mountain lion." Gray stood in the aisle next to his seat, smirking slightly. Fucking shit. Gajeel didn't really have a problem with Gray, he was always too focused on Natsu to really even notice the other man, but he was angry that his thought process had been interrupted.

"What do you want?" He snapped, as his brow furrowed into his normal, tough as nails look.

"I was just going to get some food. Then I noticed you looking at Lucy like she's a piece of meat." He paused, the smirk falling from his face. "If you touch her I will fuck you up." With that Gray continued on his way. Gajeel just snorted. As though the ice mage could even come close to beating him.

Admittedly, Gray's threat had annoyed him somewhat. Not because it was a threat, because it just fell in line so thoroughly with the whole atmosphere the group gave off. They were so touchy-feely, love-thy-comrade, it was damn irritating. He couldn't even check out a chick without receiving a verbal assault.

Hearing Gray enter the next car Gajeel let himself go back to looking over Lucy's body, this time focusing on the way her skirt slightly rode up, causing the bottom to bare hang pass her hips as the weight of gravity pulled the edge downward. Every time the train went over an especially large bump the hanging hem would tremble, threatening to slide up another millimeter or two. Gajeel's predatory dragon senses caused him to hone in on the sight, his deprecation sharpening so intensely he could practically see each individual thread of the fabric...

Some imperceptible alarm went off in his head, forcing his eyes upward.

Erza was swiveled around in her seat, her eyes just barely reaching over the back edge of the chair, staring right at him.

Staring right at him with a clear warning.

A slight chill as thin and sharp as needles of lightening seemed to snap along his nerves at her look. Gajeel wasn't a pussy, but Erza was one mother fucking scary force of nature. She was comparable to a female version of Elfman on hundreds of steroids with thousands of magical weapons at her disposable. He didn't give a flying fuck about Gray, but he really, really didn't want to have to battle with Erza if he could avoid it.

So he gave a small grunt, and slid his gaze back to the window.

When he risked looking back a few moments later he was mercifully met with the sight of scarlet hair.

* * *

Lucy opened her eyes as the announcement over the PA system told the passengers they had reached their destination. She looked over at Gajeel and suppressed the urge to start laughing. He was sitting in the exact same position with his arms tightly folded in front of him, right down to his eyes staring out the window. As the train rolled to a stop he got up and stalked down the aisle towards the door without sparing a glance her way.

Lucy began to push herself off the seat, but the movement brought her attention to a warm mass pushing against the back of her calves. She looked down to see Lily snuggled up in the bend beneath her bent knees.

Awww, how cute. She reached down and gently let her fingers tips glide along the tiny top of his head. He looked and felt just like Happy did when he snuggled up against her. Gently she shook his shoulder until his eyes popped open.

"Lily, we're here."

"Ah," the Exceed sat up and stretched his tiny arms out. "Thank you Lucy, for waking me up." Then he jumped down from the seat and followed the same path as his partner.

"Lucy!" Wendy's voice brought her back to attention, "Good morning, I mean, afternoon." The little girl smiled up at her, looking cherubic in the sunlight slanting through the large windows.

"Wendy! Hi! I didn't want to wake you when I got on, and then I fell right asleep." Lucy grabbed her suitcase and followed a few paces behind the younger girl to the train platform. The semi-familiar sight of Clover's train station greeted her.

"Over there." Erza led them over to a middle aged man with royal blue hair, dressed impressively in a sharp suit and sunglasses. Lucy didn't even bother to wonder how Erza knew he was the right client.

The man didn't say anything to them, simply led them outside to a sleek black vehicle with dark tinted windows. Once inside, Lucy could see that not only did the windows keep inquisitive outsiders from peeking inwards; it also kept the vehicle's inhabitants from seeing outwards. It felt a bit claustrophobic, and if her team hadn't been with her Lucy would have begun to panic at that point. Being as it was, she settled into her seat, besides Wendy and Carla, Erza on the other end. Somehow Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, and Lily had ended up sitting in the seats on the opposite side; all three men were pointedly looking away from one another.

A solid black stand from the middle of the floor as the vehicle began to move. A hologram shimmered into focus. It was the image of the same middle aged man in a suit and sunglasses that was driving the vehicle, except this one had lime green hair.

"Welcome Fairy Tail mages." He gave them a short nod in greeting. "Please forgive the lack of visibility. The location of the destination you are currently headed to is strictly confidential. Currently, you are on your way to a highly advanced, state of the art facility that is under development. Your mission is to help us complete this facility. Upon your arrival you will immediately be separated and undergo individualized evaluation to measure your skill set and aptitude over a variety of areas. This is to determine where you will best contribute to the completion of the project. Your luggage will be taken care of. Each of you will be assigned a room, and all your needs will be met during the duration of your mission. Understood?"

They all nodded their consent and the man vanished from view, the black stand sliding smoothly downward, out of sight.

"Hell yeah!" Natsu's fist punched in the air in triumph. "I'm going to be evaluated as the best! You losers will see!"

Immediately Gajeel and Gray launched into a verbal battle with Natsu over who would be deemed most skilled.

Lucy's felt a thrill of excitement rush through her body. The thought of seeing the results of her evaluation was pretty intriguing.

"You all are being foolish." Erza interrupted the men, forcing them to fall silent to listen.

"Arguing over who is the most skilled is a waste of time." She paused, to cross her arms confidently across her chest. Lucy smiled, trust Erza to be the voice of reason.

"Clearly, I am far more superior than any of you, in both physicality and mental aptitude."

Lucy face faulted.

Before she could collect herself, the vehicle rolled to a stop, and the same man's voice floated through the car.

"We have arrived, please exit the vehicle."


End file.
